Alone in the Dark Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

Canada 2005
Director: Uwe Boll
Cast: Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff, Will Sanderson, Matthew Walker
Release Date: January 28th 2005
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour 35 mins

Review of the Movie

Alone in the Dark film still 1


ALONE in the DARK
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

By the raise of hands, how many of you familiar with the name Uwe Boll? I guess by now the air is filled with waving hands. Well, Uwe Boll is (in)famous for disappointing movie fans, especially those who came from gamers group, since Uwe Boll often made movies based on video game. Before making movies such as In the Name of the King: The Dungeon Siege Tale, Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne II, mr. Uwe had made Alone in the Dark, utilizing famous names like Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff and Christian Slater, and what a movie this is for disappointing its original game fans. But I personally haven't played that game, so probably I have a slightly different view (not too frustrated) with those who have played it.

The premise is intriguing although nothing of novelty material. It tells about an artifact coming from such an advance ancient civilization wiped off the face of the earth for mysterious reasons. An archeologist, Prof. Lionel Hudgens (Matthew Walker) is assigned by Bureau 713 (specialized in dealing with supernatural phenomena) to investigate the missing pieces. However, Hudgens is also a mad scientist who cruelly conducts his research on 20 poor orphans. Fortunately one of them, Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) is somehow survived. It's been long forgotten by Edward when one day while visiting his girlfriend who coincidentally works with Hudgens, Aline (Tara Reid), attacked by a ferocious beast who hunt them for no apparent reason. At the same time, Edward's friend, Burke (Stephen Dorff) at the agency is suspecting Edward to be involved behind all these phenomena. Now, Edward, who is actually also an ex-agent of 713, tries to solve this mysterious event with the help of Aline. What will they eventually discover?

Familiar with Sci-Fi films? Their films are mostly campy creature horror movies with bad CGI, some do deliver fun for its intended un-seriousness and some just suck hard. Alone in the Dark, unfortunately, falls to the latter categ'. The storyline is predictably flat, you could easily tell where this is going even if you haven't played the game before. And bringing Tara Reid, Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff apparently doesn't enhanced the quality of this horror film. Is it the fault of script or is it just the actors? I don't really care anymore, it even feels like Tara Reid is making her acting debut through Alone in the Dark. And probably after seeing their appearances, they might want to hide this entry from their filmography list.

Alone in the Dark is the type of movie you would want to watch at night when no other nicer movies are broadcasted on TV, this is the type of movie that you could safely leave to do number 1 in the bathroom without having to wait for ads to show up. You won't miss much anyway. The effects are plain ordinary and the pace is quite slow at times with boring dialogue for the viewers to hear. Usually a movie like this will resort to exploitation shocks to add value, but not in here, the gore is almost none, and the sex scene between Tara Reid and Slater is downright boring, Tara still has her bra on guys. Don't think too far.

Luckily AitD is now without any single merit. The scene where the agents from 713 engage in a battle with the creatures is quite thrilling and it is the only single worthy aspect from this movie. Sigh..., still it doesn't last long, and I still don't think it justifies the fans or general moviegoers to watch this film.

Some of my buddies said to me 'you don't play Alone in the Dark, your loss.' And now I could say back to them and other fellow moviegoers, "You watch Alone in the Dark, your loss."